Sometimes, It's Just The Way Life Is
by Bookfan777
Summary: Edward and Bella were friends once, but Edward went to the Hunger Games. He came back winner and their friendship became somthing more. What if the Capitol doesn't approve? What will the Capitol do to make sure Edward will be a reminder of their power?
1. Chapter 1: Edward

Disclaimer: All Twilight characters belong to S. Meyer. All Hunger Games settings and the Hunger Game idea belongs to S. Collins. I only came up with the way I thought it would be if they came together.

A/N: Please cut me a little slack with this story. It's my first Fanfiction story. Please review and tell me what you want me to change or add story twisters you think would be good. Bella POV.

I hate Edward Cullen.

First, he and I truly hate each other, we become good friends, become amazingly close, and then he has to be picked for the Hunger Games. While he's there, I _have_ to realize I love him. And now, he comes back winner.

Yes, I really hate him.

Not that I'm not glad he came back. Oh, no, no, no, I'm ecstatic and relieved he did, it's just that his sudden popularity causes me to never see him, except for on the television. It's been almost half a year since I talked to him.

One of the things that made me hate him in the beginning was that he was a merchant boy. I am a Seam girl. See, we live in District 12 where most Seam people have to work at the coal mine, and all the merchant kids only have to take over their parent's jobs. My parents are both dead. I live at the community home, and I was always bitter at the merchant kids.

My mother was killed in a mine explosion. I'm an only child. My father, though he loved me, was heartbroken. He was foolish and always caused trouble. A peacekeeper had beaten him to death over a reason I never found out.

Back then, rules were stricter than they are now. I always disliked merchant kids because they had both parents, a clean and warm home, and love, but they acted like it was nothing. They wouldn't understand unless they lost everything, like I and the other community home kids had.

But Edward Cullen was someone who I truly hated. He had two siblings, Alice and Emmett. Alice had a tiny frame, black hair, and gray eyes. Emmett was the same, except he was huge, with a wild personality like Alice. Merchant families though, usually had opposite looks from Seam families, but those two fit in everywhere. Their parents Carlisle and Esme looked more like merchant people. Carlisle had blue eyes and blonde hair. Esme had hazel eyes and beautiful light brown hair.

Edward, though, was the real looker, even though they were all unique. With hair that was red-brown, (I believe it was called auburn?) emerald eyes, (I knew this gem because of how his stylist described him) and handsome facial features, he always had a group of girls staring at him.

Edward never took school, or life, for that matter, seriously. He charmed everyone he met, that is for his family, and me. His family because they knew him well, and for me, well, because I didn't trust him. He was too handsome and cocky, to be trusted.

He was in my grade, and everyone knew about him. Edward, the sweet one. Edward, the popular boy. Edward, the charmer. In my world, he was Edward, the fake.

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think!


	2. Chapter 2: How We Met

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or The Hunger Games.**

**A/N: R&R! Bella POV.**

My first encounter with Edward was an uneventful one.

It was when we were thirteen. He had jus competed in a spelling competition. Because he did, our teacher had decided to pair us all of us up for an assignment teaching us how to spell and write things more correctly. She decided to pair him up with the second best speller, who had decided they didn't want to be in the competion: me.

The entire class time, we had tried to outdo each other and in the end, finished before everyone else, thus making the teacher pair us up for everything together. She told every teacher we had that we were amazing partners together and that we brought the best out in each other.

Every year, we were partnered together.

We hated each other, like I mentioned before. Then, something happened that changed that.

He and I were sixteen at the time. We were, as usual, trying to out each out each other at science. We were, of course, studying our district's main enterprise: coal. While conducting an experiment, one of Edward's admirers had come up to Edward, trying to get him to notice her. She then had started toward him, knocking down a bottle of fluid on me.

I angrily swore at her. The fluid had burnt my clothes, and me. Edward just raised an eyebrow. _Oh, I hate him_, I thought.

The girl started to cry with fake tears. This time, both Edward's eyebrows went up. The girl's boyfriend, hearing her, came up to her and asked what had happened. She tearfully told him.

He angrily turned toward me and asked, loudly, "What were you thinking? Who do you think you are, to hurt my girl?"

Then, he punched me.

I fell backward, clutching my jaw in pain.

To everyone's surprise- including mine- Edward leapt up, and hit the boy squarely in the jaw.

"No one should hit a girl," he said evenly.

The boy swiftly and fearfully, backed away. The teacher didn't say a word in the other boy's defense. I think he knew that the boy shouldn't have done that in the first place.

The girl openly gaped at Edward. Edward looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

"Anything I can do for you?"

"No! No, n-nothing," the girl said, fearfully.

I looked at him and mumbled a quick thank you. And that was, I think, our friendship's beginning.

**A/N: Hey! Thanks for reading. Please review the story and tell me what to change or add!**


	3. Chapter 3: When Is He Coming?

**A/N: Hey you guys! I'm begging you to review. I put a lot of effort into it. Please do. **

**Chapter 4: When is he coming?**

I felt a rush of nervousness.

Edward's train was coming today. I remembered his promise. I hoped he did, too.

Finally, I dressed in my best clothes and went to the Hob.

He had promised me before the Games, when I went to visit him at the Justice Building that if he won the Hunger Games, and after he returned from the Victory Tour, the first place he would visit would be the Hob.

We had been meeting there for a while. It had been one of the first places we had talked together calmly. I knew that his train had come and hour ago, but I still knew him well, it would take over an hour longer for him to get anywhere. So I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

I grew restless after a while. He still hadn't come yet. It had been over two hours. Did he forget? Was he busy with something? Did he have more important affairs?

Or, did he just forget me? 


	4. Chapter 4: My Promise

**A/N: Hey you guys! I thought it would be better if I brought some of Edward's feelings in the story. I know how short my chapters are, and I am sorry. Just a few more short chapters before I get to my main plot. I actually needed an intro to kick the story off but I had no idea how, so I decided on this. I probably may change the summary soon, because even though the feelings thing may be a HUGE part of this story, The Capitol and my original idea will be bigger. Hope that you'll stick around until then! Please review!**

**Song choice: Bless The Broken Road by The Rascal Flatts**

**EPOV chap. 4: My promise**

I slowly got up from my seat and I went to ask how much longer we had to wait until we got home. I was sick and tired of the Capitol and everything that had to do with it. The . . . The way everything was so, so fake. It made me sick to my stomach.

I sighed in relief. The last place in the Victory Tour was my own district. District 12.

Everything was familiar here. Family, friends, school. And the thing that had pushed me through the Games, the Tour, and everything else. Bella.

I had hated her. We had resented being by near each other. Then, we . . . we had a friendship. At the Games, hiding from the other tributes, I had realized that I had to push forward for her. I loved her, and I needed her. I didn't know if she felt the same way or not. Either way, I would always be there for her, no matter what.

I had promised her this.


	5. Chapter 5: Later EPOV

A/N: Hi guys! Hope you guys are well and thank you to anyone who's reading my story. Thank you to crazyperson17 for reviewing. Please review! I promise this and the next chapter I post will be one of my short chapters, I think. I really need a way to work my story to the plot I imagined.

Later EPOV chap. 5

I stepped off the train and was ushered into the Justice Building. My family was there waiting for me. Bella wasn't there. The promise I made to her before the Games still rang in my mind.

I smiled at my family. Alice and Esme rushed over to me and hugged me. Emmett slapped my shoulder, grinning. Carlisle smiled at me.

And that was it. Now, it was time for Bella.

I went to the Hob, careful to wear a hat, which concealed my hair. I looked over everywhere from our usual spot, then, I saw her.

She was sitting at a stall with glassy eyes, and pain-filled look on her face. I slowly stepped toward her. When I got right in front of her, she noticed me. I leaned toward her and hugged her. There were tears in her eyes.

My Bella looked at me as If she was making sure I wasn't a figment of her imagination. Bella then said in a voice that held disbelief, happiness, and absolute relief, "You came." 


	6. Chapter 6: His Return

**A/N: Hey! Thanks for reading! Please review!**

Final chap. BPOV

I looked up, and there he was. He looked thinner and he had wild eyes. Like he couldn't get out of a nightmare.

"You came," were the only words I could utter.

He had come. He didn't forget the promise. He didn't forget me. For some reason, it was a huge relief knowing this.

"How are you?" I asked, awkwardly.

"Better now that I'm with you," he said. His intense green eyes looked like they could pierce me.

"I feel the same way," I shyly said, blushing. Now that he was here, I didn't know what to say to him.

He slowly took my hand in his. He closed his eyes as he smelled, then kissed my hand.

"You're mine Bella, no matter what."

Then, he said the words I had felt for him for so long, with fear of rejection.

"I love you." 


	7. Chapter 7: The Reaping

**AN: Thank you ****ArabelleC17****, you have no idea how much it means to me to have someone review my story. I was on the verge of giving up on it. I have no idea who else will read my story, but thank you to those who are. I tried to make this chapter longer. Please review.**

**BPOV, chap. 6: The Reaping**

It had been a few weeks since Edward had come back and it was time for the Hunger Games.

Everything President Snow did, he made sure to show he wasn't happy with Edward, because of Peeta and Katniss . Haymitch, Edward's mentor, had mysteriously vanished.

No one knew where he was or when he had disappeared.

I took a job as a washwoman and a seamstress. I worked with Hazelle, Gale's mother. He was depressed because Katniss was gone, and how he had no idea where she was.

Edward and I were usually together. He still was paranoid, and had any nightmares. Tanya, a merchant girl, always tried to be by Edward. I think someone told her to do so.

Pulling myself to the present, I tied a blue bow in my hair. One more reaping after this one, and I was done.

As we all stood in the hot, crowded town square, Edward slowly ascended the steps to the platform, to his seat, as mentor.  
Jasper Whitlock, our new escort, smiles at us, says in an accent not quite Capitol and not quite like the ones from other districts, "How about this year we pick boys first?"

Angela and Alice held my hands. They both are my best friends. I knew Angela since because of my mother. Angela's mother and my mother worked in the mines together. They both died together, too.

Angela's father though, recovered a little and dedicated his entire life to his only child. Currently, he was outside, along the lines, sweating and panicking about how Angela's name could be called.

"The boy is. . . Ben Cheney!"

Angela gasped and started to cry. Ben was the boy who she had been set to marry on her eighteenth birthday.  
Ben looked stoic, as if he were going to a funeral.  
"Now for the girls!"

Jasper dug a little bit into the bowl, then pulled out a name.

"The girl is. . . Isabella Marie Swan!"

I gasped and Angela turned to hysterics, while Alice started sobbing. I looked at Edward. The pain on his face was unbearable.  
I slowly pulled away from Alice and Angela and and climbed the stairs to the stage.

I made sure my face was calm and serious. No tears. Tears showed weakness. I knew this from the community home. Those who showed weakness never lasted long.

Jasper said a few more words and then made me shake hands with Ben.

Ben looked sad and awful, but there was a determined look in his eyes. I didn't know what to make of it. I guess he was deciding on his ways of winning. Jasper then said the words everyone knew well.

"May the odds be ever in your favor!"

But they never were. Not really.

**Ben POV**

I felt a rush of shock when I heard my name.

No, it wasn't possible. I had only put my name in the amount I had to. And out of all those names? Surely it was wrong.

It was only when I saw a couple boys staring at me, I realized that Jasper had called my name.

Angela, that's the first thought that came into my mind, as I walked up the stairs. My sweet Angela. She would be alone if I died. We had sworn we would love no one else.

I waited for the girl tribute to be called. Who would die or win these Games?

"Isabella Marie Swan!"

Bella. No. Not Bella.

Bella was Angela's best friend. Angela would be suffering her entire life if she lost two of the closest people in her life.

After her mother's death, Angela had been reserved. She still was. She would do anything for the ones she loved.

I knew she didn't volunteer for Bella, if by any chance, I could possibly come back.

I wouldn't. I knew this for a fact.

There would be many tributes there who could kill me easily.

As I shook hands with Bella, I knew I had to keep her alive for Angela.

Or else, my Angela would be in more pain, for losing us both. This would lessen the pain for her. I loved Angela, but if it came to it, I would give up my life if Bella was going to be harmed.


	8. Chapter 8: The Waiting Room

**AN: Hi! Sorry I haven't written in a little bit. I had a little trouble coming up with a good way to make this chapter a little bit more interesting. Hope you enjoy reading! Please review.  
And thank you to ArabelleC17 for reviewing. I decided to do ****Bella**** going to the ****Hunger games**** because I could more easily predict how she would feel, rather than Edward. Weird, I know, but I like to predict how my characters would feel.  
Also, I decided to do many character POVs. Would you prefer that or just one character POV? And I'm not getting Bella and Ben to fall in love with each other because they are both ****head over heels in love**** with Angela and Edward.  
So, yeah, long AN aside, here's the story.**

Chapter 8: The Waiting Room

Bella POV

They escorted me and Ben to the Justice Building, after they played the anthem.

I was sitting alone in a big room with a couch and many chairs around it.

I couldn't think clearly.

I was in the Hunger Games. I was also very sure I was going to die. President Snow hated District 12 after two previous winners from here. Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark.

Edward and been to hell and back with his Games. Now, President Snow was going to kill me. Why?  
I answered my own question.

Because Edward would be a warning, to the people who wanted to fight back.

Edward would grieve for me. Or. . . Would he take Tanya? She would be there to comfort him, and he still had the rest of his life to live. He would forget me. No one at the community home would care. Angela would grieve for Ben if he died. Alice would find someone else.

In short, no one would care. Everyone would forget me.

Pain ran through my body. The one thing I feared the most. To be forgotten.

This fear had come right after my father died. I could only vaguely remember the things he caused trouble for. It always hits me the hardest, because of how my mother died right before. I hated thinking about it.

He had forgotten me. He picked causing trouble, over me. And later, it was only after months, that people thought of me and made me go to the home.

No. No, no, no, no.

I fought the flood of panic. Tears welled up. I would be forgotten.

To kids at the home, I would be just another tribute. To Angela and Alice, I would just be someone they knew. To Edward, I would be the girl he used to have feelings for, before his wife.

Was President Snow's message, that you could be forgotten?

Or was it that he could always dig up your greatest fear?

**Ben POV**

I take a deep breath.

_It's okay_, I tell myself. _It's okay._

I'm such a terrible liar.

After a few more breaths, I look around the room.

Just after I took a glance around the room, the door opened, and Angela entered. She ran right into my arms and sobbed.  
How long we stood like that, I don't know. Then, I kissed her. Was it a farewell kiss? I assumed so, because it would probably be our last.

Afterward, I just held her, until the peacekeeper came.

"I love you," Angela whispered.

"I love you, too," I replied.

At the doorway, she quickly said, "Come back, alright?" with wild eyes.

\What was the use? I was as good as dead.

**Bella POV  
**After the painful thoughts I had, Alice came in.

"Hello, Bella," she said, her eyes swollen from crying.

Without warning, she ran and gave me a hug.

"Promise me that you'll come back!"

"I'll try. I'll put all my effort into it."

"You'd better," she said with a half-smile. "I brought you your token."

Yes. The token. Every tribute is allowed to wear one thing from their district, as long as it could not be doubled as a weapon.  
Alice hands me a necklace with an odd emblem on it. A lion raising its paws.

**(AN: The Cullen Crest!)**

"What is it?" I asked.

"Edward gave it to me, to give to you. I don't know where he got it."

That's when the peacekeeper came.

"Good-bye, Alice!"

"No, Bella. See you soon," she said, with tears in her eyes.

After she left, I couldn't help but wonder where Edward had gotten this necklace.

**Edward POV**

A low voice comes over the piece of machinery in my hand.

"Did you give it to her?"

"I gave it to my sister, to give to Bella."

"Good. We'll be keeping a close eye on her and some of the other tributes."

"Make sure she doesn't get hurt. Or else I refuse to keep my end of the bargain."

I felt a little fear for speaking so boldly to him, but I had to keep Bella safe.

"Do not worry," the voice through the machinery assured me. "We have enabled mind controllers in the chips the tributes will be injected with. If she in danger, we will have the person who is about to hurt her, change their mind."

"Alright," I said. "I will keep my end of the bargain then."

With that, the machinery closed down, to make it seem as if it were just a plain piece of crushed metal.


End file.
